This invention relates to a cooking apparatus, and in particular to a portable barbecue apparatus for use with a gas operated cooking stove or other heat source apparatuses.
There has long been a need for a device for cooking fat containing foods (usually meat) over a heat source without burning the meat, and without grease from the meat dripping onto the heat source. Examples of the devices which offer solutions to the above described problem, or which otherwise have features in common with the present invention are found in Canadian Patent No. 140,932, which issued to J. Kowalski et al on Jun. 1, 1912 and 1,072,762, which issued to B. Boswell et al on Mar. 4, 1980, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,301,172, which issued to F. A. Haro on Jan. 31, 1967 and 4,694,816, issued to M. Fabbro on Sep. 22, 1987.
Many such devices only partially solve the problem of grease and other juices from the meat reaching the source of beat. The principle solution to the problem is indirect cooking, i.e. ensuring that the food being cooked is not disposed directly over the heat source, so that liquid dropping from the food does not drop onto the heat source. Obviously, such a solution necessitates a specially designed, large volume cooker. Moreover, the devices used to solve the problem are not always particularly efficient.